"the Night in Question"

At a time of increased scrutiny about what constitutes sexual assault, award-winning documentary-maker Louis Theroux heads to American college campuses and comes face-to-face with students whose universities are accusing them of sexual assault. As reports of sexual violence have dramatically increased in recent years, the government has urged US colleges to enforce a stricter code of sexual conduct amongst students. Employing specialist administrators to carry out investigations into alleged misdemeanors, they now have the power to permanently exclude those they deem ‘responsible’.

Angela Verbrugge is an ambitious and resilient vocalist based in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. Incorporating elements of jazz, traditional pop and American Songbook, the singer engages listeners with witty lyrics and an irresistible playfulness, oftentimes evoking memories of love and loss. The Night We Couldn’t Say Good Night is a very romantic album that explores passion and love without ignoring relationship challenges. I aimed to ground the vibe in a classic 1940s to mid-50s vocal jazz aesthetic while allowing it to have its own voice as a contemporary recording with four brand new tunes. Variety is the spice of life, so I chose a nice mix of swing and Latin grooves and tempos… a song in French and one in Spanish.

In 1973 the band Chicago played a string of dates culminating in two nights at New York’s Madison Square Garden on 14 and 15 June. The support act was Bruce Springsteen, and the tour was, to say the least, not a happy experience for him, as Christopher Sandford relates in Springsteen: Point Blank: “Things soured in Philadelphia…’Kids were throwing rolls of toilet paper,’ says [manager, Mike] Appel. A fan bounced a basket ball off Springsteen’s piano. ‘They’re not paying attention to me,’ was his wild understatement to his manager. Something similar, or worse, happened at Madison Square Garden…Springsteen ran off stage in New York, announced he was quitting, ‘shrieked like a beast’ at Appel and burst into tears. After the recriminations had died down, he vowed he’d never play another ‘shed’ and ‘never as someone’s butt-fuck.’ ‘I told Bruce, okay, no more big venues,’ says Appel.”

"Into the Night: Portraits of Life and Death," a documentary by Director Helen Whitney, explores the various ways we think about death – not death in general, but our own in particular. It is the great unanswered question. How do we live with death in our eye? What are the stories we tell ourselves as we go into the night – or into the light? "Into the Night" features nine fascinating men and women from all walks of life, all ages, believers and unbelievers, well-known and obscure. For them, death is no longer an abstraction.